git-fuzzy

A Rust implementation of FuzzyBranch - a git tool that simplifies branch checkout by allowing partial branch name matching.

Features

Instead of typing the complete branch name:

$ git checkout feature/really-long-branch-name

You can use just enough characters to uniquely identify it:

$ git co real

The tool supports:

• Default branch checkout: Running with no arguments checks out the default branch (e.g. main or master)
• Exact matching: If the input exactly matches a branch name
• Substring matching: If the input is contained in one or more branch names
• Silent operation: No output on successful single match (only git's own output)
• Colored highlighting: Matched substrings are highlighted in green when showing ambiguous matches
• Commit checkout: Falls back to checking out commits if no branch matches
• Smart branch tracking: Shows local branches and remote-only branches without duplicates

Installation

1. Build the project:

cargo build --release

2. Copy the executable to a directory in your $PATH:

cp target/release/git-fuzzy ~/.local/bin/
# or
cp target/release/git-fuzzy /usr/local/bin/

3. Add a git alias to your ~/.gitconfig:

[alias]
    co = !git-fuzzy

Usage

After installation, use the git co alias (or run git-fuzzy directly):

# Get help
$ git-fuzzy --help
$ git-fuzzy --version

# With no arguments, checkout the default branch (e.g. main or master)
$ git co
Switched to branch 'main'

# Checkout a branch with substring matching (silent on success)
$ git co dev
Switched to branch 'develop'

# Checkout with partial name (silent on success)
$ git co real
Switched to branch 'feature/really-long-branch-name'

# Ambiguous matches show all options with highlighted match
$ git co feat
Ambiguous branch name 'feat'. Multiple matches:
  feature/another-feature        # 'feat' is highlighted in green
  feature/really-long-branch-name

# Fall back to commit checkout if no branch matches
$ git co 620a729
No branches match '620a729', trying as commit...
HEAD is now at 620a729 initial commit

How It Works

1. Branch Discovery: Retrieves all local branches and remote branches using git for-each-ref
2. Smart Filtering: Shows local branches plus remote-only branches (avoiding duplicates)
3. Fuzzy Matching:
   • First tries exact match
   • Falls back to substring match if no exact match found
   • If no branch matches, attempts to checkout as a commit
4. Checkout: Executes git checkout with the matched branch or commit

Requirements

• Rust 1.70 or later (for building)
• Git (for running)

License

This is a Rust reimplementation of the original Haskell FuzzyBranch by Wilfred Hughes.